A national information infrastructure constructed from both wireless and wired communications networks supports the communication of information in homes and businesses throughout the country. Telephones, televisions, radios, computers, and facsimile machines are used each day to receive, store, process, perform, display, and transmit data, text, voice, sound, and graphic images. These devices are typically connected via fiber optic cables, coaxial cables, electronic switches and routers, microwave networks, satellites, and other communications technologies. This national information infrastructure, which may one day be expanded to a global infrastructure, supports the electronic transfer of a wide variety of programming to entertain, instruct, or inform receiving parties. In view of both the variety and the substantial amount of available programming, a user typically uses a programming schedule or guide to select a desired program for reception (or transmission) on a certain date and time.
For example, a subscriber to cable network programming services, such as premium cable television or audio services, typically uses a printed schedule to select a program for viewing or listening to at a certain time period. In addition, certain cable television services supply the viewer with an on-screen programming schedule from the headend processor via the cable distribution network. For both printed and on-screen programming schedules, the programming information is typically presented as a function of the date and time for the scheduled programs. Thus, if the subscriber is interested in viewing a sports-related program, it is necessary for the subscriber to review the time periods for that date to determine if a sports-related program is scheduled during the viewing period. This time-based presentation of programming schedule information is satisfactory only when the amount of available programming is relatively limited. Furthermore, unlike the printed programming schedule, the user typically cannot control the order of the programming information supplied by an on-screen programming schedule because this information is supplied from a remote location via a conventional one-way cable distribution network.
In view of the advances in computing and broadband communications systems, it is expected that the present information infrastructure will evolve into an integrated communications network supported by advanced high-speed, interactive, broadband, digital communications equipment. Telephones, televisions, radios, computers, and facsimile machines will be linked by this interactive broadband information infrastructure and will be able to communicate and interact with other communication devices in a digital signal format. This interactive broadband information infrastructure, commonly referred to as the "information superhighway," has great potential to increase access to information and entertainment resources that can be delivered quickly and economically anywhere in the country. For example, it is feasible that hundreds of channels of "television" programming, thousands of audio recordings, and literally millions of "magazines" and "books" can be made available to homes and businesses via this information superhighway. In view of this tremendous expansion of available programming, the use of a programming schedule or guide will be critical for a user to select a desired program. However, as choices of programming increase, the prior time-based format of programming schedules becomes a less manageable technique for choosing a desired program because of the numerous programs available for any one time period. Thus, there is a need for a category-based programming schedule to clarify and to simplify for an audience the process of selecting programs of interest to each audience member.
The present invention supplies a system of retrieving and displaying a schedule for programming based primarily upon the classes of programs, rather than the time period for each program. The programming information displayed by this system is restricted to those programs matching characteristics selected by the viewer. This permits the viewer to narrow the scope of programming information supplied by the system to a more manageable number of choices and enables the viewer to have personal control over the displayed programming information. The present invention also provides a highly intuitive user interface to support the easy and convenient selection of desired programming information.